Premium On Safety - Issue 16, 2015 - 4

fLIGHT VIS

"Flight Vis" shares opinions on safety issues from
professionals operating on aviation's front lines.

Partnering With your Local Airport for Safety
By DAVID mILLER

Photo courtesy of MWAA
As a pilot with more than 30 years of
flying experience, close to 20 with the
same company, I can assure you safety
has always been a high priority in our
operation. When I took on additional
duties as our flight department's safety
officer a few years ago, it became apparent to me that, due to my company's
strong safety record, I would likely have
to look outside the standard elements
of our safety management system for
areas of growth. Acquiring knowledge,
sharing information, and learning more
about our local airport environment have
always been keys that allowed us to
better manage risk, and we decided to
undertake several initiatives that would
benefit our operation as well as the local
airport community. We reached out to
our network in search of ways to build on
our existing safety culture and were able
to connect with several local partners
based around our home airport in Dulles,
Virginia. The Metropolitan Washington
Airport Authority (MWAA) and the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) were two
of our initial contacts. Your local airport

may have a general manager or
airport authority that you can
contact to get started.
As we set out to expand
these partnerships, we wanted
to obtain a mutual understanding and appreciation for one
another's roles and needs. We
involved not only our entire
flight department, but we also
included our corporate risk
manager and a company officer
in the process. Below are a few
examples of what we did and
how we mutually benefited from
these interactions:
Dulles Airport Rescue and
Fire Fighting Station (ARFF)-
We visited one of their three
fire stations where we received
classroom fire training, extinguished a controlled fire, and
became familiar with their facilities and firefighting equipment.
The ARFF personnel were genuinely
happy that we reached out to them for
training. It was a great exchange and
they offered to attend one of our flight
department "Safety Days" with their firefighting equipment. For our company, a
"Safety Day" is hands-on safety training
with our passengers that allows us to
show them what their responsibilities
may be in the event of an actual emergency onboard one of our company aircraft, in flight or on the ground. Having
an ARFF truck nearby and having our
passengers receive assistance deplaning through an emergency exit with an
actual firefighter will surely add to the
realism of the drill.
Dulles Runway Safety Action Team
(RSAT)-For several years now, we've
participated in this action team, organized by MWAA and the Dulles Air Traffic
Control Tower, where they solicit information and safety items for discussion from
the entire user group community at the
airport. The meetings are attended by
airline operations management, MWAA
personnel, National Weather Service

employees, local air traffic control management, wildlife experts, construction
crew foremen, snowplow contractors,
FBO representatives, and a few of the
local corporate operators. It is a valuable
way to have our voice heard, learn about
other user group safety concerns, share
ideas, and communicate with parties
with whom we don't often have direct
contact.
FAA Optimization of Airspace &
Procedures in the Metroplex (OAPM)-
We participated in the redesign of the
GIBBZ standard terminal arrival route
(STAR) that services Dulles International
Airport. This is one of the NextGen
Optimized Profile Descents (OPD) that
are, according to the FAA, being developed as a way to increase efficiency by
reducing level-offs during descent, thus
reducing fuel consumption and noise.
We were given several scenarios and
potential profile changes to the STAR
and four of our company captains flew
them repeatedly in a simulator at the
Flight Safety Learning Center in Atlanta.
The FAA OAPM representatives were
thankful for the information we provided
and some of the changes we verified
as workable were incorporated into the
updated STAR, the GIBBZ2.
Local Air Traffic Control Facilities-
We toured the Air Traffic Control System
Command Center (ATCSCC), Washington
Center (ZDC), Potomac Consolidated
Terminal Radar Approach Control
(Potomac Tracon), and the Dulles Tower.
At each facility we had the opportunity
to sit in each of the areas and/or sectors we fly through most often and we
also got to meet the controllers that
we work with each time we arrive at or
depart from Dulles. The response from
our pilots and the controllers was overwhelmingly positive and they, like us
in our aircraft, welcome the sharing of
knowledge and information so that we
may support each other better in the
future. We've also made visits to the
tower cabs at several of our frequently
visited airports and found we are always
(continued on page 5)

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